Latest Contact Center Best Practices

“It’s not personal, it’s business,” or so the saying goes. But today, everything is personal – or at least it should be given the growing emphasis and importance on personalizing each customer engagement. In fact, a recent study by Forrester Research and Salesforce listed “Personalizing Customer Service Interactions” as one of the key trends facing customer service organizations. And with more than 70% of executives believing personalizing the customer relationship is of strategic importance, its no wonder its driving the way organizations currently target and service their customers. And there is no denying the results.

Continued Implementation of Self-Service: Recent studies have shown 67% ofcustomers prefer self-service over speaking to a live representative, which has its benefits when considering self-service interactions are 200-300% less expensive than those handled by a live agent. While the use of live agents is not expected to decrease, the importance and extended use of self-service is likely to be a continued theme next yar.

Growing Deployment of Cloud Infrastructures: By 2015, cloud computing spending is projected to reach 155 billion, compared to 46.4 billion in 2008. And according to DMG Consulting, cloud-based infrastructure is the fastest growing area for the call center industry, predicted to almost double between 2013 and 2015. When compared to premise-based solutions, contact centers based in the cloud have experienced 27% reduction in annual contact center costs and a 35% improvement in uptime. Offering superior reliability, scalability, and cost-savings, cloud adoption shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon and likely to continue its successes in 2014 well into 2015 and beyond.